Wearing a “Self-Compassion Suit” May Offer a Performance Edge: A Qualitative Study of Serial-Winning High-Performance Coaches
Karin Hägglund et al.
What the paper says
High-performance coaches face complex challenges within their profession, which affect both their performance and their well-being. Through a qualitative study design, we aimed to understand how serial-winning high-performance coaches perceive self-compassion practice. Nine Scandinavian participants from various sports (female = 1, male = 8) explored self-compassion through psychoeducation and 1 week of practice followed by interviews. The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The three themes are represented via a creative nonfiction story: “We have no fear of self-compassion”; “Realizing why I should be a more compassionate friend to myself, it gives me a performance edge”; and “You have to take the armor off, and that is sometimes hard.” This study offers novel insights from serial-winning high-performance coaches—a typically hard-to-reach sample. The findings show how self-compassion was perceived as beneficial based on participants’ prolonged experience navigating challenges, and how self-compassion may contribute to psychologically safe high-performance environments.
4 citations
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.37 × 0.4 = 0.15 |
| M · momentum | 0.60 × 0.15 = 0.09 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.